HP Launches New High-End, All-In-0ne PCs

Hewlett-Packard is bringing an abbreviated
list of new products to International CES: a new highpowered
desktop and a new all-in-one PC.

The HPE Phoenix h9 desktop
is the company’s first attempt
at creating a gaming
PC-quality desktop that is not
targeted specifically at gamers.
It is based on HP’s HPE Pavilion
that is now on the market, but
heavily beefed up in overall capability
and power.

“We don’t want it to look like a
gaming PC, but to look nice in a
home. It is not targeted at the extreme
gamer, but the prosumer who
wants to edit photos and videos, but
at the end of the day might like to
play a game too,” said John Gleason,
HP’s senior product marketing manager,
consumer desktop PCs.

The jet-black tower has a few physical
features reminiscent of a gaming
computer. There is red LED light
strips along the front, the side panel
has a clear portion allowing people
to see the computer’s inner workings. Included inside is
another red LED installed in the fan to give the interior a
red hue.

on Jan.
8 and will be available at retail in April. The Phoenix will be
configure-to-order. Price was not announced.

Gleason said the engineering team was tasked with
putting as much power as possible into the basic HPE
chassis. The smaller HPE desktop was chosen because
this size has proven more popular with consumers, he
added.

The Phoenix will have multiple multi-core processor options,
can take up to 16GB of DDR3 memory, has three
internal hard-drive bay slots, the ability to handle multiple
solid state drives, high-end graphic cards are optional and
has a 600-watt power unit. It comes standard with the
Beats audio technology.

There are eight USB 2.0 ports, four on the front panel
and four on the rear, and two USB 3.0 ports.

Also optional for the basic units, but standard on the
higher-powered configurations, is a liquid cooling system.
Gleason said this is the first time HP is offering
this in its Pavilion line. However, the cooling system
is the same one used in the company’s workstation
products so it has been well-tested, he said.

Despite the consumer trend that favors notebooks
and tablet PCs, Gleason said the desktop
market is still quite viable.

“Towers are still very relevant in
the industry. The prosumer tends
to gravitate towards them,” he said.
The latest all-in-one offering is the
part of HP’s Omni line, first introduced
last September.

This model adds a 27-inch screen option to the
line, which previously topped out at 22 inches. Unlike
some of the other models in the Omni line, the 27-inch
version is not a touchscreen, Gleason said. This feature
was dropped in order to hit its $1,049 price point. It will
ship on Jan. 8.

The screen is adjustable and can tilt up to 25 degrees,
and the glass reaches all the way to the edge.

This model is HP’s first non-touchscreen to incorporate
the company’s Magic Canvas software that enables the
desktop to expand horizontally, essentially allowing the
user to scroll to the left or right and add as many items as
needed to the desktop.

It will be offered with a selection of mutli-core processor
choices staring with an Intel Core i5 and advanced
HD graphics and 1TB of storage. Also standard is Beats
audio and a DVD drive.